In Star Wars: The Force Awakens we think Pip Andersen is playing…

Last night we were in Hollywood to see the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer projected theatrically. It was a great time and we got to see the trailer played on the big screen four or five times. I didn’t expect to hear anything interesting from it.

After the event, we started talking to this person who knew who we were, and this person was happy to meet us. This person then started dropping some clarifying bits we hadn’t heard before, along with photographs. (No, I didn’t get the pics, sorry.)

This person said that Pip Andersen is playing Finn’s best friend in the First Order, and he has a number just like FN-2187 (Finn), but this person couldn’t recall it. They did say the character’s nickname is “Slip.”

“Pip is Slip?!” We both pretty much said this at the same time.

I thought the person was kidding, but they were not. Apparently some of the First Order stormtroopers do take on nicknames. If Pip is indeed “Slip,” I think we can see that his name has a lot to do with his past performance as a stormtrooper and his eventual fate in the film.

For a very long time we heard that Pip did some additional mo-cap work on the film outside the actual character he was cast to play. We had heard that he was Finn’s buddy on the assault on the village and he didn’t make it. We had seen concept art depicting the bloody hand print on Finn’s helmet and then it was actually shown in the teaser, which confirmed we were on the right track.

Is this the final piece of the puzzle? Will he even be named on screen? I’m not sure this one will be solved soon. Perhaps he was only called “Slip” on the set as a joke? Either way, this informant seemed pretty set that Pip Andersen is playing a stormtrooper named Slip in Star Wars: The Force Awakens!